Police in Pennsylvania have arrested a modern day grave robber, charging Jonathan Gerlach with more than 500 counts after finding dozens of human skeletal remains at his home in Lancaster County.
Gerlach, 34, was arrested at the Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon as he walked toward his car with a crowbar and a bag containing the remains of two small children, three skulls, and other bones, WPVI reports.
Police had been investigating a string of burglaries on sealed vaults and mausoleums in the 1855 cemetery when they found that Gerlach’s license plates had been in the area when the break-ins occurred.
The arrest led to a search on Wednesday of Gerlach’s home in Ephrata, where investigators found more than 100 skeletal remains.
“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night. This is an unbelievable scene,” said Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse. “Understand, some of these are 200 years old. Some obviously much newer, there’s one with a pacemaker still attached to the body.”
Investigators said they believe the Mount Moriah cemetery was not the only one targeted. They also found a Facebook group called “Human Bones and Skull Selling Group” in which Gerlach was pictured holding a skull.
“Very simply, detectives have recovered an awful lot of bones at this point, and we are still trying to piece together who they are, where they are from, and how many we are looking at. It’s going to be quite some time before we have a final answer,” stated Rouse.
Yeadon Mayor Rohan Hepkins said that he had been notified by Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, which helps maintain the 200-acre property with nearly 200,000 burials, of a series of mausoleum break-ins, WPMT reported. He called police, who began regular patrols in the area.
Investigators said that between last November and January 6, when Gerlach was arrested, 26 mausoleums and other burial sites were burglarized at Mount Moriah, WCAU reported. On that night in January, police were surveilling the cemetery and spotted Gerlach’s car with bones and skulls in the back seat, then saw Gerlach himself.
He reportedly admitted taking about 30 items.
According to WPVI, Gerlach has been charged with 26 counts of burglary, 52 counts of criminal trespassing, 100 counts of abuse of a corpse, 100 counts of theft, 100 counts of receiving stolen property, 26 counts of desecration of a public monument, 26 counts of desecretion of a venerated object, 26 counts of desecration of historic lots and burial places, 26 counts of criminal mischief, and seven counts of defiant trespasser.
He’s being held on a $1 million bond with a hearing set for January 20.
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[Featured image: Mount Moriah Cemetery/Google Maps. Inset: Jonathan Gerlach/Delaware County District Attorney’s Office via AP]
